


the love is found between the notes

by TheQueenInTheNorth



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Snapshots, Snippets, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:47:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27282175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueenInTheNorth/pseuds/TheQueenInTheNorth
Summary: The soulmate bond is something precious but it's also practical: As long as she has a pen handy, all Elena has to do is write on her own arm to give Mack a message. From love notes to mission critical intel to drawings, everything goes and everything is written with love.
Relationships: Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie/Yo Yo Rodriguez
Comments: 22
Kudos: 32





	the love is found between the notes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smallblueandloud](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallblueandloud/gifts).



> This was written for the Final Mission Rarepair Exchange:)

Elena smacked off her alarm with one hand, the other reaching to Mack’s side of the bed only to find it empty. She flicked on the light and checked her arm.

_Had to head out early,_ the letters on the inside of her wrist read in Mack’s neat handwriting.

She wet her thumb against her tongue and rubbed the words away, grabbing the pen she kept on the nightstand for just this purpose and wrote back, _Sucks to be the boss, huh?_

He’d take that for the ‘good morning’ it was meant to be.

By the time Elena was about to step into the shower, there were new words on her skin.

_Good morning, mi amor._

She smiled to herself and waited to reply until she was dried off and dressed again. Today was a lazy day so she’d imitate her Turtleman and go about it nice and slow. With the day off, the only reason she’d set an alarm in the first place was to make sure she’d get to the farmer’s market before it got too full.

_Let me know when you’ll be home for dinner,_ she scribbled onto her arm as she headed out of the door.

* * *

Mack kept surreptitiously glancing at his arm, fighting down the chuckles that so desperately wanted to spill from his lips. He was in a very important meeting with a very important general, or so the general liked to think, anyway.

Mostly, Mack was humouring the man because a few months back he had agreed to sign off on a certain pardon for two certain former spies that were currently back at his and Elena’s home, watching this speech - or at least the bits that got broadcasted to the public.

Elena was drawing a not very flattering and entirely too accurate caricature of the general and Mack barely managed to keep a straight face. He pulled his sleeve back down over the drawing and vowed to keep it that way until he was in the privacy of his car on the way home.

By then, the well-drawn general had acquired a speech bubble, with the words ‘If my head got any bigger, I’d float away’ scribbled into it in Hunter’s familiar scrawl.

It only made Mack’s smile even wider. There was nothing quite like the joy of having his two best friends back and getting on so well with his wife.

* * *

Elena finished her guest lecture and stepped off to the side to let Melinda finish up the lesson by summing up her talk into a few neat bullet points the students could jot down.

Flint grinned at her from the third row and gave her a thumbs up; Elena winked and gave him a thumbs up in return.

Flint was such a ray of sunshine and, while he’d taken well to most things this earth had to offer, had not taken up being embarrassed by his parents - even if the birth certificate Daisy had produced was fake, the relationship the three of them had was very real. It came as no surprise that he came up to hug her and let her kiss him on the cheek when Melinda dismissed the class.

“Can I?”he asked.

She didn’t need to ask what he meant, offering her arm.“Knock yourself out, mijo.”

He could just text Mack but he preferred this way when he had either of them handy.

She looked at her arm when he set aside the pen.“Oh, we’re having tacos for dinner?”

“That’s what your arm says, anyway,”he quipped, kissing her cheek before following his friends.

* * *

Mack wasn’t surprised when his comms suddenly stopped working. Daisy had warned him that even with the modifications she’d made, they weren’t guaranteed to work in this place. They hadn’t had a target this tech savvy in a while. Tremors had been excited at the challenge. That he’d made it down two levels before the comms had stopped working was already more than she had estimated.

Well, there always was the old-fashioned way. One of the many perks to having a soulmate, really.

He glanced around to make sure he wouldn’t blow his cover, then pushed up his sleeve and wrote on his arm. _Hey, the comms failed. Can you get in touch with Daisy and give me directions?_

_Sure thing,_ the answer came not much later. A few more minutes after that, a floor plan started appearing on his skin. She’d added a small heart as a ‘you are here’ marker, as well as a note at the edge of the map. _Be safe, mi amor._

_You too,_ he wrote back, knowing she was going to head out for her own part of the mission soon. There was no one else he’d rather have out there having his back.

* * *

Elena stroked a finger across her son’s chubby cheek softly, careful not to wake him up in the process, now that he had finally fallen asleep. Alejandro had just begun teething and he was not at all a happy camper, so getting him down for his naps was much tougher than usual these days.

She couldn’t help herself but check on him again and again anyway, even if she risked accidentally waking him. A few months had not been enough to get used to the sheer overwhelming love washing over her whenever she looked at their baby, and she could never make herself go long without looking at him some more. He resembled Mack more and more with every passing day, even if Mack never tired of pointing out that he had her eyes.

She slipped out of the room as quietly as she had entered. Checking the time, she saw that Mack was probably on his way home already, or at least would be soon if he wasn’t.

She fished the pen out of her back pocket and left a note on her arm. _Jandro’s asleep. Tread quietly, Turtleman._

_Always do,_ he wrote back. _See you soon, mi amor._

* * *

Mack scribbled down another suggestion for dinner, waiting for Elena to wipe the words away and reply. He’d taken stock of what they had at home and now it was a matter of deciding what to do with that - or if one of them needed to go get groceries.

_Gabriela wants Mazamorra chiquita,_ Elena wrote back.

Even with it just being letters on his own skin, Mack could perfectly picture the glint in her eyes and the tone of her voice, somewhere between teasing and sincere.

They had only recently settled on the name for their unborn daughter but she kicked every time they said it near Elena’s belly.

_Well, can’t say no to either of you,_ Mack responded. He turned to Jandro, on the playmat carefully stacking his building blocks. Mack took a moment to just watch him fondly, then said,“C’mon, mijo, we’re going to the store.”

Jandro gave him a broad grin and stretched his hands out to him. He loved going in the carrier. He always babbled about everything he could spot from up there.

_Can you write a shopping list while I get Jandro dressed?_ Mack wrote on his arm, then picked up his son.

* * *

Elena watched the pattern on her arm become more and more colourful, smiling to herself as she pictured the kids hanging all over Mack to colour in the mandala she had drawn for them before heading out for the day. It was a bit of a ritual by now when either of them had to be up and out of the house before the children were awake.

Elena would draw something for them and then they would colour it in on the arm of whichever parent was home with them that day. The kids loved it - as did Elena and Mack.

They’d cut their hours and missions back drastically anyway but this small way of keeping their children close when they couldn’t be there physically still meant a lot.

Especially this time, when she had to be away for two whole days. It was much too long to be without her family.

_We miss you,_ Mack wrote at the edge of her drawing, as if he’d read her mind. A crooked heart appeared next to the words seconds later. Gabriela, probably. Orange was her current favourite colour.

Elena smiled at the words and added her own. _I miss you, too._

* * *

“Another one?”Mack chuckled.

Elena raised on tiptoes to get a proper look at the back of his head and grinned.“Two, actually.”

He offered her his arm so she could add another tally mark.“You know, at this point you’ll just win on a technicality.”

“Fine by me,”Elena said, putting two new lines on his arm, and on hers with it.

The moment they’d entered the butterfly house, a huge, bright butterfly had landed on Mack’s head and she’d jokingly bet him that his baldness would attract more.

They’d settled on numbers - three for him, nine for her - and had already reached double digits only halfway through the butterfly house. Which still meant she was closer.

It also meant they could’ve stopped counting but it was too funny not to keep up.

“It’s no wonder they’re all over you,”she said, eyes twinkling.“I’d be, too, if I were a butterfly.”

He raised an eyebrow.“Only then?”

“Do you need to ask?”she teased back.

“It’s a good thing you married me.”

“It’s a good thing Flint is watching the kids until morning.”

“Happy anniversary,”Mack said.

“Happy anniversary,”Elena echoed and pulled him in for a kiss.


End file.
